20 DAYS OF ACA: Health insurance access for young Latina adults

For the next twenty days, as we celebrate the second anniversary of the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Supreme Court begins oral arguments on the health reform law, we will be bringing you stories, statistics and resources on how the ACA has and will benefit the health of Latinas, their families and their communities.

First in our series is a discussion of the new rules allowing adult children to stay on their parent’s plan until the age of 26.

This provision has already had an enormous impact on securing coverage for young people. Young adults will qualify for this coverage even if they are not living with their parents, not listed as dependents on their parent’s tax forms, or no longer a student. Both married and unmarried young adults qualify, although coverage is not extended to the dependent’s spouse or child.

Plans will comply with this rule on the beginning of the first “plan year” on or after September 23, 2010.

The law also ensures quality control for this new coverage: health insurance plans for the newly eligible dependents will contain the same benefits packages offered to other dependents who were covered before the change. These dependents will also not be charged more for coverage.

Additionally, and we will definitely talk more about this, but as health care reform is further implemented, young Latina adults will get more from their insurance coverage. For example, the rule requiring insurance plans to fully cover (without co-pay) a whole range of women’s preventive services, including contraception, will make health insurance more meaningful for young Latina adults.